


Unscripted

by StrongerTogether



Category: Happiest Season (2020)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28096878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrongerTogether/pseuds/StrongerTogether
Summary: Following the ending of Happiest Season, a look into life between Abby, Harper, the Caldwells, and everyone.Part I - The BlessingPart II - The Proposal
Relationships: Harper Caldwell/Abby Holland
Comments: 17
Kudos: 118





	1. The Blessing

Part I: The Blessing

It had taken Abby and Harper eight months after the absolute trainwreck that had been Harper’s coming-out and Abby’s first Christmas season with the Caldwells to get to the place Abby found them in now.

In January, a mere two weeks after the weekend of Christmas, Harper and Abby found themselves accompanying John on a trip back to Harper’s hometown to see in the new year with the family and for John to extend the offer of a publishing contract to Jane. With Sloane’s legal guidance and John’s oath to have her back every step of the way in her new career, Jane embarked on her journey to becoming a published author within the next year, much to everyone’s pride and delight.

In February, after _a lot_ of talking and listening and effort and understanding shared between them, Harper was beginning to feel a lot more comfortable within her family, within her relationship with Abby, and, most importantly, within herself. Abby could see it happening a little more with each passing day and with every conversation she had with Harper about her family and her past. Abby realized that Riley had been right when she had suggested that maybe both Harpers - the Harper that Abby had always known and loved and the Harper she had encountered during the Christmas season with the Caldwells - were the real Harper. Every day, Abby watched those two versions of Harper begin to coalesce into a more confident, content, and happy woman who Abby only fell more and more in love with as time wore on. Like a broken bone, their relationship seemed to have grown back stronger in the broken places.

In March, Harper had to go on an assignment to Washington D.C., and because Abby was on spring break from Carnegie Mellon, Abby joined her. Jane, who happened to be visiting Pittsburgh to work out some details with her book at the publishing company, agreed to take over pet sitting for Abby and stayed at their apartment while they were gone. While they were there, Harper decided to extend an invitation to Riley to have dinner with them one night. Though surprised at first, Riley accepted the proverbial olive branch and the three found that they had a pretty decent time together once they got over the awkwardness of it all. That night, while Abby excused herself to take a call from Jane regarding one of the pets, Harper apologized again to Riley for their past and Riley, being the kind of person she is, extended the offer of a fresh start for them as friends. If Abby wondered why both women were a bit teary-eyed when she returned to the table, she did not question it but simply ordered another round of drinks for them.

In April, the whole family had made the trip to Sloane’s home for the weekend of the twins’ birthday and Easter, which was an altogether interesting affair in general for everyone involved. Despite their quirks and to no one’s greater surprise than Abby herself, Magnus and Matilda had taken a liking to Abby following the necklace-in-the-bag incident. Abby inexplicably found that she returned the sentiment wholeheartedly.

In May, Abby not only celebrated the completion of her Master of Art History from Carnegie Mellon but her first Mother’s Day in six years. She had, of course, been expecting Harper and John to be in attendance at her graduation ceremony, even Riley making the trip from Baltimore wasn’t such a great surprise, but Abby had been completely blown away by the show of support when she was confronted by the entire Caldwell family staring back at her as she accepted her degree. A few weeks later, when she and Harper visited for Mother’s Day – typically a very difficult day for Abby - Tipper gave her an almost awkwardly long hug but the awkwardness seemed to ebb away when, at brunch, Tipper thanked them all and expressed how fortunate she felt for all of her children.

In June, much to Abby’s downright shock and surprise, they had all attended Gay Pride together. Sloane and the twins hadn’t been in attendance due to Magnus and Matilda having simultaneously come down with a nasty stomach bug, but John and Riley had been all too willing to join them, along with one of John and Jane’s friends from the publishing company who seemed to have taken a particular interest in Riley, much to the doctor’s confusion.

In July, the Caldwells celebrated Independence Day by renting out a lake house right on Erie. It was eight nights of both pandemonium and paradise, late nights spent with strong drinks around cozy campfires and lazy days spent boating on the lake or hanging out in the hammock or visiting the local village or vineyard. At one point, Abby looked at Harper, backlit by the setting sun and face aglow in the light of the campfire and she knew instantaneously in that moment that she had been right when she described Harper as ‘her person’ and ‘the love of her life’. She had kept the ring from last Christmas burning a hole in the back of her mind for months and she was more sure now, surrounded by Harper’s family and their closest friends, that she wanted this for the rest of her life. She would have proposed right there on the spot, or perhaps pulled Harper away for a more private setting, had she had the ring or Ted’s blessing but she had neither, and so she savored the moment as it was.

In August, Abby realized that they were not going to be lucky enough to be able to get away from their busy lives in Pittsburgh and get together with Harper’s family again until Labor Day weekend and the time between the two visits gave Abby more time to think and plan and freak out than she definitely needed or wanted.

Finally, the first weekend of September rolled around. Abby was both excited and full of dread for the weekend ahead and, being the terrible liar that she was, she knew that Harper was beginning to suspect something was up. Abby was a bundle of nervous energy and Harper could sense it, especially in the compact space of her red Hyundai.

All of the best and worst case scenarios running through her mind came to a head when, after dinner on the patio with the whole family on Saturday night (a precursor to a lavish barbecue the next day), Abby _finally_ got her moment.

Harper had already gone to bed and Abby had gone with her, only to toss and turn restlessly for an hour. So many thoughts ran through her mind, that not even looking at Harper’s peacefully sleeping face next to her in the bed was enough to calm her. After what had to have been the fiftieth time of her rolling over to try to get more comfortable, Harper began stirring in her sleep. Abby, not wanting to wake her, decided that maybe a cup of the chamomile that she knew Tipper kept downstairs in the kitchen cupboard would help; she wasn’t usually a tea drinker but on occasion she let Harper talk her into it when she couldn’t sleep and it did always seem to help.

As she was padding quietly down the upstairs hallway, trying not to wake anyone else in the house, she noticed that the light was on in Ted’s home office and the door was partially open. Out of curiosity more than anything else, Abby gambled a peek into the room and found the man she had been trying all day to have a moment with, sitting at his desk and looking tired and lost in thought.

She steeled herself, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, and knocked on the door.

Ted looked up immediately, his tired face showing surprise at seeing his daughter’s girlfriend standing in his office doorway at eleven o’clock at night. “Abby,” he said, confusion hanging heavily on the two syllables of her name. “Is everything alright? Is Harper okay?”

It warmed Abby to know that Ted’s immediate thought was of his daughter’s well-being, but Harper was fine and safe and asleep in her childhood bed, so she hurried to assure him, “Harper’s fine.”

The man breathed out in relief. “Oh, good. Did you need something?” he asked, not unkindly.

Boy, did she ever. It was a loaded question if ever she had heard one, and one she was not entirely sure how to answer. “No. Well, actually…” she trailed off, trying to gauge her next best move. “I, uh, I know it’s late, but… Do you, uh, mind if I come in for a minute? There is something I’d like to ask you.”

“Yes, of course,” Ted answered, gesturing for her to come in and sit on the sofa in the room.

Abby hesitated for only a moment, before closing the door behind her in case anyone were to wake up and be listening in. She sat down, trying to feel as at ease with Harper’s dad as she had begun to typically feel around him, which wasn’t _a lot_ more comfortable than right now, but it was usually slightly better. She tried to draw up in her head the speech she had rehearsed over and over but she couldn’t remember any of it and the longer they sat there in silence, the more tension seemed to fill the room.

Finally, a thought occurred to her; for as long as she had known this man, being anything less than one-hundred-percent honest and herself had never served her very well, which made her think of the first time she had stood in this office with him. With both of those things in mind, she said, “You know, I’ve wanted to ask you this for so long that I came up with this whole, amazing speech to say when the time came, but now I can’t remember any of it. What I _can_ remember is the first time I ever met you. I complimented you on your Thanksgiving speech at the food bank and you told me that the speech wasn’t scripted, that it just came to you. So… I’m kind of just… going to say what comes to me now, if that’s okay.”

Her hands were shaking. Actually, her whole body was trembling slightly, but Ted nodded for her to go on with a very fatherly look of concern for her on his face. In that moment, it was exactly what Abby needed.

“I love your daughter. So much. I think I love her more than I have ever loved anyone before in my entire life. Actually, I know I do.” Abby laughed softly and paused for a moment to catch her breath. “Sometimes, when I wake up in the morning… I feel like I’m still dreaming, because she’s there and she’s… not-not perfect, because nobody is and I would never want to hang that expectation on her, but so… _Harper_. And the fact that she’s with me- that out of everyone in entire world, she chose _me_ … well, it honestly makes me feel… so _beyond_ fortunate. I don’t even think there’s a word for it.

“And we’ve been through so much together- good… and bad. But _life_ has bad moments, and I’ve had my fair share of them, with and without Harper. So I can honestly say that I know I would rather have a thousand bad moments with her than a single bad moment without her. She’s my person and the love of my life and I would really, really love to ask her to be my wife too, and I would _really_ like to have your blessing to do that.”

The final words of her request were met with a few beats of deafening silence and Abby felt her heart stutter in her chest as she awaited Ted’s response. It reminded her of John’s words on Christmas Eve, about coming out and how once the words were out you couldn’t take them back, a chapter had closed and a new one began. But Abby didn’t want to take the words back; she wanted to marry Harper and she wanted Harper’s father’s blessing to do so.

“You should use that,” Ted said finally.

Abby only felt confusion. “Um, what?”

“The… ‘your person, the love of your life, wanting to ask her to be your wife’,” Ted began. “You should use that when you propose to Harper.”

It took Abby’s tired, chaotic mind a few moments to catch up to the implication behind Ted’s words. “Does- does that mean…?” her words tapered off, not daring to finish the question.

Ted’s typically politely stoic face warmed and smiled at her. “Abby, you have my blessing to ask Harper to marry you, and I’m very touched that you thought to ask me for my blessing in the first place.”

Abby breathed a gigantic sigh of relief, her body relaxing visibly as she exhaled, and Ted continued smiling at her, looking for all the world as if he might have even been the least bit proud of her.

+

That night, as she lay back down next to Harper in her girlfriend’s childhood bedroom, Abby had another thought: now just how the hell was she going to propose to Harper?


	2. The Proposal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, everyone! Thanks for the show of support! I've got at least one more chapter of this planned as well as a potential companion piece to it, but let me know what you think about that!

Part II: The Proposal

In the end, it goes nothing like anything Abby had planned, but Harper couldn’t care less.

…

Abby had been acting strangely for months, even more so than was typical of the quirky blonde Harper had fallen helplessly in love with over a year ago at that point. It wasn’t putting a strain on their relationship, so to speak, but Harper knew her girlfriend and she knew when Abby had something hidden up her sleeve. It was only the fact that it had remained hidden for so long that had Harper even slightly inhibited.

Harper unexpectedly had the day off from work. It was an altogether unheard-of occurrence which only happened due to a freak accident with a toaster somewhere in the office which had set off all the sprinklers in the building and sent dozens of cool, calm, and collected journalists scrambling to protect laptops and desktops and phones from the water that would destroy the devices. Because of the amount of smoke and moisture remaining throughout the building even after the debacle, everyone had been sent home for the day with an email to follow pertaining a plan of action for the next day.

Though she imagined most people must have been excited for the free time, and it was true for her to an extent, Harper found herself bored out of her mind by two o’clock that afternoon, which was how she had found herself doing laundry. Normally, Abby did the laundry and she took care of the dishes; it was just a system that had developed naturally and worked well early on in their days of living together. Back then, Abby had been home a lot more, but that was before she graduated and got her new job assisting in the curation of a new art exhibit that was set to open in January. For some reason, despite often working ten-plus hours a day, Abby had been insistent on keeping up with the chore, though Harper had offered to split the responsibility with her more than once.

Now, staring blankly at the ring box she had accidentally come across while putting away the last of Abby’s clothes in her bureau, she was beginning to understand _why_ Abby had been so adamant of about it.

“Hey, babe, I’m home!” Abby’s voice came suddenly from much closer than Harper had been expecting. “Sorry, I know I’m later than I said I would be. Time at the exhibit just kind of—”

Harper was still holding the ring box in her hand when Abby came into view, immediately causing the blonde to stop dead in her tracks with a deer-in-the-headlights expression. Abby audibly sucked in a deep breath and Harper blinked tears out of her eyes because Abby’s reaction to her finding this could only mean one thing.

“Um, I didn’t mean to… I wasn’t…” Harper stammered, snapping herself out of it forcefully. “Look, I can just put this back and pretend-”

Abby cleared her throat. “Uh, no, it’s okay,” she began, gradually coming out of her shock. She took the few steps forward into their bedroom to take the velvet box gently from Harper’s hands. “This just, uh, wasn’t how I planned this at all, but…” Abby trailed off as an idea seemed to occur to her. “You know what? Actually, I think I know how we can salvage this. Give me ten minutes, then meet me on the roof, okay?”

“Abby, what-?”

“Ten minutes, I swear!”

Harper hesitated before giving an encouraging nod to Abby’s hopeful look. She took Abby’s hand and squeezed it tightly, only letting go when Abby pulled back and was too far away for their hands to touch any longer.

+

Harper was nervous. She had known, logically, that there was a rooftop to their apartment building, but she had never been up there. _Why_ , exactly, they had to leave in the middle of their conversation to climb up there now, Harper had no idea, but she trusted Abby with everything she had and was, so after Abby’s ten minutes were up, she climbed.

When she finally reached the rooftop off the fire escape, she was glad she had given Abby the ten minutes she had. The early-October sun was creeping slowly closer to the horizon line, painting the sky in hues of orange, pink, and gold, but the lights of the city were already sparking into life and glittering below them. In the middle of the rooftop, the love of her life was sitting on their red-checkered picnic blanket next to a box of pizza and a bottle of Harper’s favorite red wine accompanied by two glasses. The picnic blanket was held down against the light breeze by lit votive candles (presumably the ones left over from their Halloween jack-o-lanterns) on each corner. Playing from the speakers of Abby’s phone was a song that Harper recognized immediately. The scene was almost enough to make Harper forget about what she had found in Abby’s drawer. Almost.

“Thanks for giving me a head start,” Abby said sheepishly as she extended her hand out to Harper.

“Worth it,” Harper admitted in awe, smiling brightly at Abby. “Is this…?” She pointed a finger toward her ear to indicate the music playing.

“The Mary Lambert song that was playing the night we met? Yeah. Too cheesy?” Abby asked, blushing all the while.

“Not for what I’m pretty sure you’re about to ask me,” Harper teased softly, taking a seat next to Abby and leaning in to kiss her softly. “This was a nice save, by the way. I’m sorry that I ruined whatever plan you had.”

Abby tipped her head to the side thoughtfully. “Well, in hindsight, my sock drawer was probably not the _most_ secure place to hide the ring,” she acquiesced graciously. “Besides, since when have our lives ever gone according to plan?”

“Never.”

They laughed softly together, and Abby turned to look out at the sun sinking lower and lower across the Pittsburgh skyline. Harper shuffled closer into Abby’s body to fight the slight chill of the October evening and laid her head on her girlfriend’s shoulder. She felt Abby’s body curl into hers and her blonde head gently rest on top of Harper’s own.

“Do you remember the last time we were on a roof?” Abby asked after a while of silence.

“You mean when I had the bright idea to climb up on a stranger’s rooftop to look at Christmas lights and you fell off and almost broke your back? No, I don’t recall,” Harper joked.

Abby huffed out a laugh. “Thank God for that stupid inflatable snowman,” she said. “But I was actually talking more about what you said while we were up there. You know, _before_ I almost fell to my death.

“We were just sitting like we are now and looking out at all the lights. You joked that we could just stay up there, and I told you that I would do that,” Abby recounted. For a moment there was silence, save for the slight autumn breeze and the sounds of the city below them and Abby and Harper simply stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, hazel seemingly unwilling to leave blue.

“That’s how I always feel when I’m with you,” Abby confessed, “like I could just stay with you forever. Because, honestly, that is what I want more than anything, to be right next to you for… _everything,_ the good and the not so good… for forever.”

“I want that too,” Harper replied, feeling a lump in her throat from all the emotions that were filling her at the moment.

“Harper, you’re my best friend and my person and the love of my life, and I would really love to add ‘wife’ to that list, so…” Abby reached into her pocket and pulled out the black velvet box that Harper had come across by complete accident not half an hour ago; she cracked the box open, revealing the emerald-cut diamond set into a traditional gold band inside. “Will you marry me?”

If it hadn’t been for the fact that they were four stories up and currently sitting down, Harper might have knocked Abby over with the force with which she was tempted to throw herself at her girlfriend. As it was, for logistical reasons, her reaction was slightly more tempered. Slightly. She still came at Abby with enough enthusiasm to knock Abby flat onto her back as their lips meet in a kiss that was both sweet and frenzied and salty from Harper’s own tears. They both were smiling so much that it was almost hard to kiss each other, their inability to conceal their happiness warring with their desire to kiss each other.

When lack of oxygen became a problem and they broke apart, Abby still had the open ring box in her hand. The engagement ring was still nestled in the cushion and Harper still hadn’t technically answered her. “So, uh, is that a…?”

“Yes! Yes. Of course, I will marry you, Abby!” Harper half-cried half-laughed, smiling for all the world as if Abby had hung the stars and moon above them herself.

Abby took the ring from its cushion very carefully. Her hands were shaking ever so slightly; from residual nerves or excitement, Harper couldn’t be sure. She slid the band onto the ring finger of Harper’s left hand and the fit was snug, but only enough so that they didn’t need to worry about it falling off; very close to a practically perfect fit.

Harper’s eyes lifted from the ring on her hand to meet Abby’s hazel gaze. Her face was flushed from the chill breeze and she was illuminated only by the faintest traces of the sun’s final rays, but her eyes shone with unmistakable elation. To Harper, she had never looked more beautiful.

“I love you,” Harper told her earnestly.

“I love you too.”

+

They stayed out on the roof for a while longer, enjoying the pizza Abby had brought home and the wine from their kitchen, sharing conversation and laughter and exchanging kisses until the chill in the air became a bit too cold to leave them comfortable. Then, they grabbed the pizza box, the bottle of wine and glasses, and the red checkered picnic blanket and _very carefully_ made their way back down the fire escape to their apartment.

Getting back in turned out to be a trickier ordeal than getting out had been. Abby, being the oh-so-graceful gazelle that she was, nearly fell face-first onto their living room floor trying the climb back in through the window. She was only saved from that fate by Harper’s slim but strong hands on her upper arms. Harper, unsurprisingly, had no issue getting back in with Abby’s hands on her waist guiding her gently.

Inside the warmth of their home, the couple changed into their pajamas and climbed into bed together. Immediately they sought out the comfort of one another’s embrace until their entire bodies were pressed together from head to toe (well, technically Abby’s toes only reached Harper’s mid-calves, but that was just semantics). Harper kissed the bridge of Abby’s nose sweetly.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy,” the brunette hummed in contentment. “I wanna marry you.”

Abby laughed softly. “Yeah, that’s kind of what the whole me-proposing-to-you-thing was all about, babe.”

Harper shuffled back, causing Abby to let out a grumble of protest, but then she was right next to Abby, hovering on her arm slightly above her. “I know, but I want to marry you soon. Like, for instance, what are you doing for New Year’s?”

“Whoa, baby, slow down. I know you’re good with deadlines, but two months to plan a wedding is pushing it, even for you,” Abby soothed her. She wrapped her arms around Harper’s sides and pulled her down fully onto her chest. “We have time,” she murmured, dropping a kiss into Harper’s auburn-brown hair. “We’ll figure it out. Together.”

+

In the morning, _much_ earlier than Abby wanted to which Harper had to give her considering she was still in her pajamas, they took a picture together showing off Harper’s engagement ring. Harper knew that Abby tried only barely successfully to hide her smile as Harper snapped the photo and sent it off somewhat hesitantly to her sisters, parents, John, and Riley.

When she stepped out of her shower with Abby, still wrapped in a towel with droplets of water dripping from the ends of her hair, she had a myriad of responses as well as a notification of being tagged in one of her mother’s social media posts. She read them off one by one.

**Sloane: Congratulations! I’m happy for you two. Call me later.**

**Jane: 😁😁😁😁😁😁 I want the whole story! Start to finish! No leaving anything out!**

**Dad: Congratulations, sweetheart! I am proud of the both of you.**

**John: I still say, ‘down with the patriarchy!’, but for you two, I am willing to review my stance on marriage. Congrats to you both!**

**Riley: Finally! Call me later with the deets!**

And just when Harper thought she couldn’t feel anymore loved or supported, she opened the notification of the social media post her mother had created and tagged her in and found the picture of her and Abby that she had sent her everyone not half an hour beforehand. Captioned below it were words that made Harper’s heart feel warm and tears spring to her eyes, ‘ _Welcome to the family, Abby!! ❤️💍’_ with the hastag #en-gay-ged.

When she opened her mother’s text message, therein laid a simple but loaded question: When is the wedding?

...


End file.
